RSS feedI fought the parking man, and the parking man won. On Thursday night, I left the hospital late, around 11pm or so, and the boom gate of the car park was up, so I just drove out. $30 saved. When I say car park, it’s more just a few empty blocks of gravel and dirt, but it’s the only car park near the hospital, so it will do.
Louise’s car had also parked there since Thursday, and was amassing quite a large fee. But I didn’t care, because I figured I’d just drive them both out late on successive nights, and voila, free parking.
So last night, Friday, I’d been parked there all day. I left the hospital at around 10pm, and walked to the car park. It was a cold night. The guy was still there, boom gate up, but waiting to take my money, so I walked around for a while, freezing, figuring 10:30pm would do it. Nope, still there. So I called my sister, spoke to her for a while, and walked back around 11pm.
By this time I was cold and frustrated, wondering why I didn’t just pay the parking fee. But the guy was packing up his stuff and about to leave, so it seemed like it was worth the wait. I walked close by to check it out, careful not to give away my intention. He watched me walk by, it was like a mexican stand off, him wanting to leave, but not wanting to miss out on the $30. So I went around a corner and waited 10 minutes before returning.
Finally, he’d gone. I checked the gate… it was locked. Check the other gate, also locked. I walked right around the entire station, there was no way out. I’d had a chance a leave, but I wrecked it, so here I was, with both of our cars locked inside a parking station that I couldn’t get them out of. I ended up having to walk home, and walk back to the hospital in the morning. This morning.
Late this afternoon I finally left the car park, asking the guy if I could go out and come back later in the day and continue the ongoing fee, but no, he said I’d have to pay the full day rate every time I left and returned in the same day. What an arse.
As it is, I now park out in the street, and I’ll get Louise’s car out (with a $100+ fee) sometime tomorrow.
What an arse.